


Not as it seems

by MiidnightMxlody



Series: HybridLove - Aizalea and Loki [1]
Category: Loki - Fandom, MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Also from my own head (maybe), F/M, Frustrated Loki, Inspired by imagines from Tumblr, Loki as a cat - Freeform, Not sure what all to add, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Loki (Marvel), Vampires written partly different from other people's versions, vampire/werewolf hybrid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-16 20:47:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21042539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiidnightMxlody/pseuds/MiidnightMxlody
Summary: ** Idea taken from this imagine on Tumblr: Imagine that Loki is banished to Midgard shortly after Thor: the dark world. However, as punishment for his crimes, he is forced into the form of a common animal on earth to prevent his use of magic and silver tongue. This common animal is a cat. Now stuck on Midgard, Loki is treated and seen as the equivalent of a stray. He’s kicked at, underfed and cold. However, luckily for him, it isn’t too long until a Midgardian picks him up and he is placed within a rescue center. That is where he meets the Midgardian equivalent of a Valkyrie. **----------------------------------------------------------------------------Aizalea finds a cat while out on a walk, and brings him in from the rain. She thinks what she's brought home is a normal, if somewhat grumpy, black cat. What she doesn't know, it that things are far from what they appear to be.And that things are not always..as they seem.





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> RATING: Right now should be fine for anyone to read, later chapter rating may change. 
> 
> NOTES/WARNINGS: Up until they learn his name, he is thought not to have one. Feedback would be appreciated! :) (Also, her name is pronounced “Eye-zale-ia,” similar to ‘Azalea,’ but different because I’m weird and like the sound of my spelling better - and yes, she used to be named Izzabella.)
> 
> ** Chapters may run longer or shorter depending on what ideas I have for them!

Living among humans had never been easy for her. She was most certainly not a human - but nearly no one believed her when she said otherwise, so she just went with it. Her and her two friends’ living depended on it: they were in a band; bands had to have fans in order to get anywhere. Without fans, they’d get no performances asked for. Without fans, they would sell no CD’s. And so forth. 

This made living among the humans something essential to their survival. It was sometimes more pleasant than others..other times, however, it was not. 

Right now, there was a lull in performances. This was because they had just come off of a tour, and were trying to take a break. Although it was a surprise to them all, that their manager/agent - a nasty man named _Steven Pollag_ \- had even allowed them to do it. Usually, he was all about working them hard to get the money. There was a theory among the three of them, that he was only allowing them to have this break because it was also beneficial to him in some way. 

Aizalea, better known by her stage name ‘Izzy Moon,’ or to her friends, simply ‘Izzy;’ she did not care. Whatever would keep him far away from her was good enough. 

He was good at his job - surprisingly - but not good to Izzy. She rejected his advances, and so he’d become violent; he had also begun to threaten her because he knew it would get under her skin. The full extent of it all, she had been trying to keep from her two bandmates, Ashley and Lauren - better known as ‘Ash and Luna,’ both on stage, and by themselves with Izzy. If they knew more than she thought they did, they weren’t telling her. They knew she had her pride, after all. Not that it made keeping their agent around any easier. 

Right now, Izzy had decided to go for a walk. She had been out for some time when it had started to rain, so she pulled her hood up. Thinking about to head back to the - unnecessarily lavish - rented apartment that Steven was letting them use when something caught her eye from across the street. 

A car had driven off, leaving a cat at this vet’s office. It was clearly not open right now, but whoever it was had been yelled at to leave the cat so they could go. After speeding away and splashing the poor thing with a growing puddle in the road, the car went off out of sight. Izzy could see a sad woman looking back, but that was it before the car continued on down the street and away to wherever it was going. Seeing no one else interested in helping the cat, Izzy bit her lip. She knew Steven would only gripe at her for it, but she had to do something. Part of what she was, was animalistic..in a manner of speaking. To leave another creature out here like this would be horrible - and she couldn’t do it. 

Deciding that Steven could shove it and that what he didn’t know for now couldn’t hurt her, Izzy ran across the road before any more cars come. The cat had started to wander around a bit as if confused. It was still close enough, though, for Izzy to come over and pick it up. 

Immediately, the cat began to growl and hiss lowly. It sounded pained, though, as if something were wrong. Judging from the limp she thought that she’d seen, Izzy was nearly certain that it was. From her heightened sense of smell, she discerned that the cat was a boy. There seemed to be something else off about him, but since he didn’t seem in the mood to willingly communicate with her, she couldn’t figure it out that way. For now, Izzy bundled him up as best as she could with the front of her hoodie, carrying him in what was sort of like a basket made of cloth. Or.. something. 

“Shhh. It’ll be alright, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take you inside, get you cleaned up, and see about finding you something to eat. So you can stop growling, kitty. I’m not letting you run off with a hurt paw and other probable injuries that need checking. I’d be a terrible hybrid if I did that,” she stated the last part softly, figuring that admitting such a thing to a cat wouldn’t be of any ill consequence to her. She did seem to have his interest after that, though, she noticed. And he’d stopped growling. 

Taking that as a good sign, Izzy continued onwards to the building where she, Ash, and Luna had been staying at. Once inside, she took her hood off and headed for the elevator. Holding the cat in her arms as closely as she dared for the whole ride up, Izzy had to wonder if the cat that she had saved had a name already or not. She didn’t have too much longer to think about that, though, because they soon reached the floor that they were supposed to be on. 

Stepping out of the elevator, Izzy carried her “precious cargo” across the hall and to the door leading to their apartment. Pausing at the door, Izzy fished out her keys. Resituating how she was holding him, she cradled him in one arm and opened the door with her free hand. 

Upon stepping inside, Izzy was greeted by Ash jumping up and halting whatever video game that she’d been playing, jumping over the couch rather than going around it, and bouncing over to her, exclaiming nearly all in one breath: Izzy, Izzy! Where’ve you been? We missed you! Oh, and I got a new high score and I want you to see! It was the coolest thing ever, so you just gotta come and see it!” Ash jumped up and down, startling the cat in Izzy’s arms. 

The greeting from her sister, however, began with her simply lowering her book, marking her spot, and rolling her eyes with a soft sigh. Then, she got up and walked over, arms folded. 

“She’s been in the sugar again,” Luna stated, to which Ash stuck her tongue out at her and shook her head. 

“Have not!” Ash said, in a way that only gave away further how hyper she was. She was about to start arguing with Luna when she heard a cat growling at her and stopped. Sniffing the air, she gave a confused look. “I smell a cat. There’s no cat here! Where’s the cat? Where’s—“ she was cut off by Luna clearing her throat and pointing to Izzy, to which Ash just bounced back into hyper-mode, and grinned. “Oooh!! You brought home a kitty!” She grinned, leaning in to try and get his attention. He was having none of it, though, and swatted at her despite it being painful to do so. Ears back, he bared his teeth and growled. 

“Owwie.. he hurt me,” Ash pouted, withdrawing her hand and putting her finger in her mouth to make it stop bleeding. 

Izzy just sighed and tried to calm the kitty down. It was not working well. 

“That’s what I was trying to tell you, Ash,” Izzy said, looking down at the cat in her arms, sort of folded up in the risen front of her hoodie. “I found him on my way back. Someone left him in front of the vet’s office, even though it was closed. As if the expected the poor thing to stay until someone came in the morning,” Izzy frowned, rolling her eyes. 

“Anyways, I could tell that he was hurt so I went across the road and picked him up. The car that left him there splashed him with road water, so I tried to fold him up close to me so he’d be at least a little bit warmer. As you can see, we’re both soaked. So I am fairly certain that before I can check on his wounds, I’m going to have to give him a warm bath. I’ll take my shower later.” Aizalea finished, pausing for a moment. Turning to the more responsible and far less hyper of the two, she coughed. 

“Luna, could you and Ash go and pick up some stuff from the store? Kitty friendly, remember. He’s got feline in him, not canine.” Izzy looked at Ash when she stressed this and shook her finger. “I’ll order us dinner unless you two want to bring it home?” she rose a brow, to which Luna looked down at the poor creature in her friend’s arms, and nodded. 

“We can bring it back. He needs to eat, and so do we. You give him a bath, and we’ll go get the stuff. Come on, Ash. Let’s go get ready. This stuff won’t buy itself,” Luna added, turning to walk off and get herself ready to go out. She knew it was raining, so she reminded Ash more than once to dress in something warm because she wasn’t entirely sure that Ash was listening to her the first few times. After all, in this form, they didn’t have as much to keep them from getting cold in the rain.

_And questions would likely be raised, if they were to go running through the city in their other forms, with bags of food and cat supplies in their mouths. _

✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋ 🐾 ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

After Ash and Luna had gone out to go buy the stuff that they’d probably need, Izzy carried her new little friend to the kitchen. Removing him from her hoodie and carefully placing him into the sink, she turned and took her hoodie off. Using a black hair tie off of her wrist - that had been there for who knew how long - she pulled her long hair up in as best a way as she could. All the while, keeping watch of the cat, who also seemed to be watching her. He was sitting there with his tail flicking in a way that suggested that he was frustrated, and his ears were back. But he hadn’t tried to get away yet - she guessed this was because he was in pain, and left it at that.

“Alright..” She stated, sighing softly. “Let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?” Izzy smiled lightly, coming over to the sink. She had no idea; or, at least, didn’t know yet, where this cat had truly come from. Or, who it actually was. It was fair enough: the cat sitting in her sink didn’t know who she was, either.

Miserable as he was before having been picked up by her, things had only become even further of a mess as far as he was concerned. There was only _one_ of them before. **Now**, there were three. The one they called ‘Ash’ reminded him far too much of an over-excited child. ‘Luna’ seemed to be decent, but he wasn’t sure yet. The last one, who he supposed was called ‘Izzy,’ was..strange. He could tell that she thought that what she was doing was right, even if he wasn’t in the mood to receive help from her currently.

If he ever would be, he didn’t know. Life had made him a lot more bitter of late; before coming here, he had been stuck in a form that purposely prevented him from shifting out of it. He had been made to take the form of a cat and was unable to change it because he had been barred from doing so somehow. Whatever manner of spell that had been used to change him was not one that he was familiar with - that was the only reasonable conclusion that he had come up with so far. Not that it was one that he was particularly _satisfied_ with. 

While being bathed in a sink of all things was something that he felt to be highly undignified, Izzy was gentle. She scrubbed where necessary, but did her best not to further harm him. For one who smelled to him like a mix of something extremely **strange**, and more oddly, a dog of some kind; she was not horrible. For the moment. 

Now that he thought about it.. they _all_ smelled like dog to him, in some capacity. A scent that he had learned to not be very fond of since getting here - he blamed his current form and its reactions that he couldn’t stop, for that. The hissing, the growling.. the instinct to bite or to swat at people. All of that came from his being trapped in feline form. He was sure of it. The rest, he supposed must be from how the mortals here had treated him. All of them, save for the little girl who had apparently desperately wanted to keep him for longer than a night, were terrible as far as he was concerned. Kicking him, throwing things at him. Yelling, chasing, and frightening the life out of him. All reasons why he wasn’t happy that Izzy had picked him up in the first place. Yet here he was, sitting in a sink in what he guessed was their home, getting a bath in the sink.

The warm water felt nice, after being so cold outside. In this form, he apparently was affected by the cold. _Ironic_, he thought, given his true genetic lineage. 

His thoughts were brought back to the present, as Izzy continued to bathe him. She was using some flowery-scented soap, which also kind of smelled like vanilla to him; sudsing him up, gently massaging it in, and then washing it away again, with some sort of extendable sink sprayer-thing that also felt pretty good. The whole time, Izzy hummed softly, as if hoping that it might somehow make him feel better. In the beginning, it was an annoyance. Over time, however, he decided to tolerate it. 

Right when he was getting used to the pattern of things, the water went off. _What an un-disappointing disappointment. _

✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋ 🐾 ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

Being a feline was complicated. Part of him had hated the water, and yet; there was another part of him that found it soothing. That, and, perhaps he liked the fact that he wouldn’t have to use his _tongue_ for a while..a lot more than he was letting himself believe. 

When the water went off and she had put the sink-sprayer thing back in place, Izzy set about carefully drying his fur a bit. It felt weird to have her patting all over him with a towel, but it was at least soft and did not smell bad. Only once she seemed satisfied with his level of dryness, did she finally hoist him up out of the sink and into her arms again - snuggled close like some form of wrapped-up food. He got his breath hard; but it hurt, so he didn’t do it again. Watching from the view he had, he could hear her talking to him. 

“I’m going to find you a comfortable pillow to sit on,” Izzy stated, although it seemed more like it was to herself than to him. “After I set you down, I’m going to get the hairdryer. It will be loud.. so please don’t run, okay?” 

The plea posed to him came with a soft and caring tone; in with it was also pity, which he despised. However, he elected to stay on the pillow on the grounds that it was indeed comfortable, and he liked it. 

Returning to dry him off further, Aizalea sat on the bed and plugged the hairdryer into the wall. Turning it on a lower setting, she took the towel and set it to the side. One hand on the other side of his as if to prevent any escape attempts he may make, she began to dry his fur better. She was not sure how he felt about it but hoped that he enjoyed it. 

The hairdryer put to the side when finished with, Aizalea picked him up and rose again. This time, she brought him to her en-suite bathroom. The counter was big enough for her to check him over, and she could get to the most basic first aid supplies that she may need. It seemed like a good idea to her, but he did not seem to like it one bit. It was as if he’d had enough of her handling him, and now he wanted down. 

“No, you can’t. You can’t get down,” Izzy said, hoping that somehow he’d get it in his head to behave. The air and scent that she got off of him may have been strange, but that didn’t have to mean that he wasn’t a normal cat. For all she knew, it could very well just be her smelling or feeling things that weren’t there. His attitude was enough to prove that he likely was just a normal cat. Even if he _had_ set relatively still for his bath.

Claws and hissing met her when she got to some of the hurt places; she had not expected for him to give her a necessarily good reaction, but this was not something that she was going to put up with. 

“Stop. I’m just trying to help you. Behave,” she growled herself, startling the cat in front of her into being still for a moment. Long enough, for Izzy to finish bandaging him up. A heavy exhale left her as she picked him up; she was glad that she had gotten him cleaned off and that he was now fixed up as best as she could accomplish right now with such little cooperation from him. 

A frown pressed on her lips, as she brought him in and set him down in her room. Irritated by having been attacked simply for helping, she decided that she was going to leave him alone in her room for a while, to see if he’d start being a little nicer to her later on. The look she was given was as close to a scowl as he could give, and she hadn’t missed it. Shaking her head as she shut her door, Izzy went to the kitchen to wash her arms off. She didn’t think that any of them were bad enough to warrant bandages, and would likely heal on their own anyways; she had elevated healing from two different sources, her wait wouldn’t be a long one. 

Not that that didn’t mean that she was not going to sit and be frustrated for the rest of the time before Ash and Luna came back to their apartment. 

_Because she was._

✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋ 🐾 ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

A few hours after the “incident” with the cat, the sound of knocking on the door brought Izzy away from her attempts to write a new song. Setting that to the side, she went to the door and let them both in. 

“Thanks,” Luna sighed, arms full of bags. From behind her, Ash gave a limp sort of greeting, signifying that her sugar rush induced hyperness had finally worn off. Shuffling inside, both sisters set down the bags of cat supplies by the doorway and took the food bags into the kitchen. Going through the kitty supplies was going to wait. For now, they were all hungry. 

“I’m guessing that the bath didn’t go so well, did it?” Luna asked as they ate their very late dinner: consisting of fried chicken that they’d gotten from the nearest deli, various sides, and several other types of meat gotten from either that same deli or from different places around it. 

“No,” Izzy sighed, setting down her chicken bone. “These didn’t come from me giving him a bath. He did pretty well with that, actually. It was when I was trying to check his wounds that he did it. He started hissing and growling at me, so I left him in my room.” Aizalea chewed at her lower lip, seeming conflicted about it. Finally, she looked up at the sisters sitting at the table with her and added on to what she’d said before. 

“Don’t eat it all. Leave some of it for me, okay? I’m going to take some of it to him so he can eat. Maybe it’ll put him in a better mood, I don’t know..” she said, earning nods from the other two in response. Ash was pretty tired right now, so she didn’t feel like eating a huge amount anyways. 

“What’re you going to call him?” Ash did speak up after some time, glancing over the rim of her cup at Aizalea as she got a drink from it, and raising an eyebrow. 

Getting up to take care of her trash and her dishes, Izzy hummed softly. Her own dark eyebrows creased in thought as she wiped her inedible bits of food into the trash, she shrugged her shoulders. 

“I’m not sure yet,” was her answer. “I’m going to take some food to him, though, and I think maybe also get cleaned up. Night or not, don’t forget to sleep you two.” This comment was her last to them for the moment, as she picked out nice bits of still-warm meats and put them on a plate. Her actual final words to them for the night, came as she went into her room and wished them both goodnight. 

Once inside, she looked around for the cat that she’d left in there earlier. He wasn’t anywhere that she could see at first, but in pausing to let her higher sense of hearing take over, she located him by the sound of his breathing. He was sulking under her bed, likely not very happy with her. 

“I know you’re probably still mad at me, but I brought you food. I hope you like it, it’s out here.” 

Izzy placed the plate down on the carpet near the end of her bed, then went about gathering her things for a shower. The whole time, she had to wonder if he already had a name. She hadn’t been able to speak with him so far because he wasn’t in the mood to cooperate; all she had gotten was normal animal sounds. Nothing she could make heads or tails of, which bothered her. _If he wouldn’t speak to her, how would she know if he had a name? _

As she went to bed for the night, she continued to think about it all for a while. Her whole day - how it had gone, finding the cat, and what had all taken place afterward. The last thing she thought to herself while finally drifting off, was that she’d seen the cat laying on her bookshelf and staring at the books themselves. 

_Odd…_


	2. Chapter two

The next morning, Izzy woke up to the sight of the plate that she had left being almost entirely empty. There did not seem to be any trace of the selections of meat that she had set out, which brought a smile to her face as soon as she had wiped her eyes and stretched her sore muscles out. 

Swinging her feet over the edge of the bed, Izzy went over to the plate and picked it up. Walking out of her room, she shut the door behind her. Softly, so as to hopefully not wake the cat still sleeping on her bookshelf. After that, she went to the kitchen to get herself something to drink. Taking her time with it, she sighed quietly. It looked like neither Ash nor Luna were awake yet, so she took it upon herself to go through the bags of cat supplies and toys that they had brought back the night before. 

There were several different kinds of cat treats, a few bags of catnip, cans of wet food, and at the bottom of one bag, what looked like the receipt for an order they’d made for some sort of a cat climby thing due to be delivered later on in the day. 

“Well..he ought to enjoy that, it’s pricey so it must be good.” Aizalea shrugged to herself, setting the receipt to the side for the moment. The next bag had various kinds of kitty toys, and little shirts to put on him. Something, that Izzy was fairly certain was likely Ash’s idea. Sitting separate from the two overflowing bags, was a box for a self-cleaning litter box, and a big bag of litter that had a bunch of stuff listed off on the front. ‘Fresh scent guaranteed to last for hours,’ ‘Perfect feel for your cat’s paws,’ ‘Clumps well and works great with self-cleaning litter boxes’ - and so forth. 

“This wasn’t here last night..” Izzy muttered to herself, then shaking her head. She figured there must have been some point in the night when either Luna, Ash, or both of them could not sleep and brought it inside for her to set up for the kitty. 

“Oh, well. I hope that he likes all of this..” she sighed, pulling the stuff out to begin clipping off the tags. As she did this, she set aside together what went together. Toys with toys, food with food, and clothes by themselves. The clothes, being something that she wasn’t sure that he was even going to cooperate for - really, she was expecting more hissing and growling if any of the three of them tried to put a shirt on him. 

As for said feline, he was not bothered with moving until after Izzy had finished going and out of her room about a million times to set things up for him. Food and water dishes in one spot, a fluffy pillow in another; he assumed that it was meant for him to sleep on. There was a basket with toys in it, one of which seemed to have some sort of treat inside, judging by the smell of it. 

Most of the things that had been brought into her room were not too horrible, he supposed. It did not mean that he was in any more of a mood to ‘communicate with her,’ though.  _ Especially  _ when he found the litter box.  _ Such an undignified thing! Horrendous. _ It was better than going in a dark, disgusting alley. True. But that did not mean that he was not planning for his revenge the very moment he had the chance to get it. Sticking him in the form of a cat with no way to change back.  _ The nerve.  _ After all that he’d been through, hadn’t it been enough? Being stuck like this was just another thing to be bitter and unhappy about. 

_ However... _ the food that Izzy had left for him the night before was not bad. It was actually very delicious, and not hard to eat even with him being stuck as an animal. Had he been ready to trust her - which he wasn’t - it was likely that he would have accepted her little “peace offering.” Given that he was still in a sour mood, it was going to take more than that to get him to respond well to her. Or to the other two - if he ever did warm up to that hyper one at all. In some ways, she reminded him far too much of his brother, who was a large part of why he was stuck like this now.

After being left in here for what felt like forever, he decided that maybe Izzy wasn’t around. He was sure she suspected something but wasn’t holding his breath for her to figure it out completely any time soon. He wasn’t that lucky. 

Left to his own devices, he went over to the bookshelf and worked a book off of it. Nudging it over to his pillow, he opened it up and tried to hold it open as best as he could. It didn’t work as well as he’d hoped, so a toy was retrieved from the basket so that he could use it to hold the book down. With that accomplished, he went over to lay on the pillow and try to read the book. No matter how he tried looking at it, though, the words all looked just like a bunch of squiggles and meaningless lines to him.  _ One more thing to be mad about! _ He’d forgotten..most animals could not read. 

Turning away from the book in anger, he curled up on his pillow to sulk. It hurt less but was still painful. How he wished he had his magic back, then these injuries would be nothing. Then again, if he had his magic, then he wouldn’t be stuck as this creature either. Doomed to be what, a** house pet?** _Wonderful_.   
  


✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋  🐾  ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

A few hours later into the morning, Ash and Luna got up and went about their business. Making food for themselves, sitting down with a book, or getting dressed. By the time that was all done, the delivery for the kitty condo had been made. Seeing as Luna had sat down with her book again not long after she’d gotten dressed and looked to be pretty invested in the story, Ash decided to help Izzy put it together. Which, proved to be a lot easier than the instructions made it look to be. 

As they put the pieces together, Ash could tell that her friend had something on her mind. 

“Okay, what’s up?” Ash asked her, with a nudge to Izzy’s leg from her foot. 

“Hm?” Izzy looked up a bit, a slight frown on her face. Pausing with the piece that she had in her hands, she sighed. “Oh, right..” chewing on the side of her lip, Izzy shrugged. Going to put the piece of the condo where it belonged, she heard Ash clearing her throat at her. 

“I know when something’s bothering you, Iz. Spill, or the next time that we have tomatoes I’m stealing all of yours.” Ash folded her arms, the piece that she’d picked up still in her left hand. The look that she gave her as she made her - relatively cheap - threat to steal Izzy’s favorite snack away from her the next time she had it, said that she was serious. 

“Come on, tell me. Is it about the cat?” Ash pressed, her expression softening just a little. “Is he not doing well, or not communicating with you, or what?” 

The continued asking finally got to Izzy: what she’d had on her mind for most of the morning was going to be spoken one way or another; whether Izzy liked it or she didn’t, one thing about having another hybrid as a friend was that she had the same sense for emotions that Aizalea herself did. She could tell when someone was upset, it was like another added sense or something. 

“Yeah, kinda..” Izzy sighed, running a hand through her hair. “He won’t tell me anything, so I have no idea if he’s already got a name or not. And, on top of that..” she trailed off, her eyebrows creasing slightly. “I have been trying to decide if I should try using magic to help him heal or not. I don’t know how he’d respond to it, and I’m a little afraid that it may just scare him.” 

Once having confessed this, Izzy looked over at Ash for her opinion. It was then, that Luna looked up from her book to make a comment of her own on the situation. 

“Why don’t you bring him out to see the cat thing, and try healing him up later? Maybe if you do it slowly over time, then he won’t be as afraid? It might also help if he’s got somewhere to go of his own, outside of your room.” Looking back down at her book again, Luna began to read as she awaited any answers from either Aizalea or her sister Ash. 

Thinking it over, Ash nodded. “That sounds like a great idea! Why don’t we get this set up and put treats in it, then you can go and get the kitty and see how he reacts to it?” she suggested this with a smile, while Izzy thought about it for a moment. 

“I guess I could try that, yeah..” she sighed finally, nodding a bit. “I’m just hoping that he will take well to it,” Izzy concluded, going back to helping Ash put the remaining pieces to the kitty condo together. It was a brownish-grey color scheme - not the most appealing thing in their living room, but it was covered in nice, fluffy, carpeting, which should feel good to even the sorest feline paws; Izzy was sure that he would enjoy, or at least tolerate it well. 

With it put together, Izzy got up from the floor and brushed herself off. Heading to her room, she opened the door and looked inside. The first thing she came to, was what appeared to be the cat that she’d left in there earlier - the  _ same  _ cat - sulking on the pillow that she’d left him. That wasn’t what she found to be odd. What she found to be odd, was the presence of the book sitting on the floor in front of it. One of the toys that she’d left for him had been moved to hold it open like he wanted to try to ** _.. read it? _ **

_ What was going on? _

✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋  🐾  ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

“You’re not a normal cat, are you..?” Izzy shut her door behind her and took a few steps closer to him. Squatting down, she slowly sat down fully and crossed her legs. The cat in front of her shifted slightly on the pillow but didn’t turn to face her yet. His ears were perked up, alert and twitching. Even if he wasn’t looking at her, it appeared that she at least had his attention. 

“This book, you were trying to read it..” she pressed lightly, turning the book around so that she could see it better. “Tell me, I promise I won’t hurt you. Just speak to me..” Aizalea’s brows furrowed, a concerned look on her face. If  _ this  _ didn’t work, she didn’t know what else she was going to try in order to get some form of communication from him. 

After what seemed like several minutes of excruciating and frustrating waiting, the cat turned his head and looked at her. Ears back, he finally answered her. To anyone  _ else _ , it may have sounded like a simple ‘meow.’ To  _ Aizalea _ , it sounded like words.  _ Words! _ At last, she was getting somewhere. However, it was not exactly a very helpful answer. Four words, taken up in one meow and a huff following it. 

_ “You have no  _ ** _idea_ ** _ .” _


	3. Chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RATING: Right now should be fine for anyone to read, next chapter rating may change.
> 
> NOTES/WARNINGS: He finally tells her his name!
> 
> ( Feedback would be appreciated! :) (Also, her name is pronounced “Eye-zale-ia,” similar to ‘Azalea,’ but different because I’m weird and like the sound of my spelling better - and yes, she used to be named Izzabella.) )
> 
> ** Chapters may run longer or shorter depending on what ideas I have for them!

The black cat now sat up, a bit unsteady because of the pain that it caused him. Seeming to be undeterred by it, he sat up anyways and curled his tail around his paws. His greenish-blue eyes drilled into Izzy, although it was only now that their true beauty was completely evident to her. The only reason that it hadn’t before, was because she had mostly been concerned with taking care of him and trying to get him situated. Now that she was able to sit down with him and have some sort of response other than _ hissing  _ or  _ growling _ , she could see it so much better. 

Unable to suppress the fact that him answering her made her happy, Izzy smiled a bit and sat up a little more.  _ True _ , it hadn’t been very polite - nor had it been helpful in any real sense of the word - but it was  _ something _ . And something, she could work with. 

“I’m going to guess that you’re not originally a cat, then, are you?” Izzy asked, raising an eyebrow. She tried to be gentle in tone when posing such a question, given that she was aware that if the answer to that was ‘yes,’ then there must have some kind of situation that put him in this form. And, depending on whatever - or whoever - he had been before, it might be considered by him to be an extreme step down in the food chain. However, her attempts to be gentle were met with cynicism. 

_ “How astute of you to notice.”  _ If cats could frown or roll their eyes, she was sure that he certainly would be. His ears were already back as it was, and he seemed to be impatient with either her, or his predicament, or both.  _ “What tipped you off, my blatantly ineffective efforts to read this book, or was it because I wouldn’t talk to you from the start?”  _

The tone he held was a frustrated one: he was being rude, and snide to her in how he was speaking - but he also did not seem to  _ care _ . Sighing softly, Izzy closed her eyes, held her breath, and slowly exhaled. Choosing to ignore it, she leaned in close and picked him up. 

“Look...I just want to  _ help  _ you.” Izzy started, holding a finger to his mouth when he began to object. “And I can’t do that; if your only answers to me are rude and unhelpful. Alright?” With all seriousness, Izzy looked him directly in the eyes. He got his breath hard but did not answer her this time. Changing how she was holding him, Izzy went to go sit on her bed and put him on her lap. 

“Now, I’m going to try and heal you some..is that okay? I’ll have to use magic; if you know what that is...” she trailed off, trying to ignore what sounded to her like a bunch of indignant nonsense coming from him in response. “Shhh..” Aizalea whispered, resting her forehead to his. It was a strange and initially unwelcome thing to him. He just wanted to be put back down so that he could return to his pillow and sulk - to be allowed to avoid her and her loud, bothersome friend Ash. As well as Luna, since he just wanted to be left alone. Despite the fact that she hadn’t really been a problem to him so far. 

A calming chill ran through him, relaxing him in almost an instant. It was like no magic that he had  _ ever  _ dealt with before. It washed through his body and seemed to target exactly where he’d been hurt, then to carry it away just as quickly as it had arrived. Colors were seen differently to him right now, but the mist-like magic coming from her seemed to be of some darker shade of something to him; in effect, the whole thing was making him feel much more curious and much less frustrated. After she was finished, the pain was substantially lessened. It did not hurt as much to move, and the soreness had eased up. While he did not really feel much like talking anymore at the present time, he leaned up and licked her cheek a couple of times - an action that was completely embarrassing to him once he realized what he had done.

Reasoning that it was only because he was a cat right now, and it was natural for a creature of the feline species to do something like that, he decided not to think about it anymore. A decision that was made harder to keep, after she kissed the top of his head.  _ Drat _ . Whatever! He would just stay silent, and wait to be put back down on the floor. _ Perhaps if he were patient-- Ah, yes! She was putting him back down. Wonderful. Now maybe she would leave again, and he could-- _

“I have something to show you if you want to see it.” Aizalea smiled softly, heading towards the door again. Opening it, she waited to see if he wanted to come to the other room. He hesitated, but the offer had him intrigued.  _ With the lack of so much pain, walking wasn’t really that difficult now... _ Alright, fine. 

Standing up again, he cautiously ventured out into the living room. From this point of view, everything looked huge. Not like how it had when he was up in the air, being held in Izzy’s arms the night before. It was daunting, but Izzy had moved to the side to let him through at his own pace - something that he appreciated, although he didn’t say so aloud. 

“It’s this way,” Izzy’s voice caught his attention, bringing it away from looking around the room, and from staring apprehensively at Ash - who was standing not too far away and watching him and Izzy. Looking instead in the direction that she had motioned in, he took a few more steps that way. What came into his sight was not what he had been expecting at all - it had multiple levels, looked to have places to hide, maybe a place for claw sharpening, and a dangly toy thing off to the side. At first, he wanted to feel insulted. This thing was for  **pets** . For  ** _animals_ ** ! It was not for  _ him _ .  _ And  _ ** _yet_ ** _ ... the cat in him compelled him to at least go and check it out _ . 

At first sniff, it smelled funny. Venturing inside one of the little hiding places proved it not to be such a bad thing, though: it was soft, warm, and only had enough space for him inside. Right now, it was perfect - the perfect place for him to sulk and be aggravated. Because, while it was nice and he had decided that he didn’t mind it so much, he still wasn’t ready to let go of his frustrations about being stuck this way yet. For all he knew, the magic that Izzy had only extended as far as nice-feeling healing powers, and that was it. Well, aside from the ‘being able to communicate with animals’ thing.  _ How weird was this Midgardian woman going to turn out to be?  _ He could only wonder. 

“Did he tell you his name yet?” he could hear them talking from across the room. Ash was talking to Izzy, and Izzy looked to be upset when she answered her. 

“No, all he did was snap at me. I was able to heal him somewhat, but for now, I have no idea whatsoever if he even  _ has  _ a name. I’m beginning to think that even communicating with him was just all in my head.” she sighed, back leaned against the wall, arms crossed loosely beneath her chest. 

For some reason, her tone and expression made him feel a little guilty. He had been a bit rude with her when all that she had apparently wanted to do was help.  _ Then again _ , why should he have to be in charge of her emotions or her well-being? She was the one who had brought him into her home. He hadn’t asked her to pull him out of the rain. To bring him in, clean him up, feed him, and give him a bunch of things to try and make him happy…  _ No _ . He’d not asked for any of it. That was the bottom line. He was here because of her, and that was all. He didn’t care how she felt about it, he was done caring about other people or trying to help. That was what he’d been trying to do before he’d been stuck in this mess: he’d been trying to help; the expected outcome was to be rewarded - not to be turned into an  _ animal  _ with no means of changing himself back, or of communicating with anyone.  _ Anyone but  _ ** _her_ ** _ … _

An impatient sigh left him. If he was going to be stuck like this, then he was going to be free to sulk and be mad about it if he wanted to - no matter how it affected some  _ woman _ . This was the decision that he had come to, and he was sticking to it. 

At least, this is what he  _ thought  _ that he was going to do.    
  


✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋  🐾  ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

The following days were nothing, if not at least interesting. 

While he had had it in mind to keep to himself and sulk alone, the three women in the apartment did not seem to be getting that memo; even Luna was paying him attention, not that he had expected it. Still, he found himself welcoming it more than he had with Ash - he still very unsure of her, most often because she was too hyperactive for his moods and got on his nerves - but there were some of her efforts, that he found himself later admitting that he had maybe  _ not  _ minded them as much as he originally thought that he did. She was trying, he could give her that, he supposed. 

The real bond he’d found himself making, however, was not with either of them. It was with Izzy. 

Even if he’d gone off to be alone, she’d usually leave him some sort of a treat to try and coax him out again anyways. Not that it usually worked, but she did make the attempt. And it was her perseverance that was most intriguing to him - for, he knew that he was not giving her the information she wanted; she wanted to know his name, but he had not budged. No name had been given, yet she did him the favor of not giving him some ridiculous or absurdly offensive name in place of it. He wasn’t cooperating well with her, yet more than once, she brought him up to lay on her bed with her when she noticed that he wasn’t sleeping well. It was unexpected and at first, rather unwelcome. No such comforts had been afforded to him since the passing of his mother, and so actions like these were greatly off-putting to him. Izzy was being  _ kind  _ to him, although she had no real reason to do so. It baffled him. _ Why should she be so nice, when he was being so stubborn?  _ With all of his resistance and frequent bad moods, he had assumed that by now she would have given up and put him out. Or put him in a cage; as his not-father had done before when he’d done something that he perceived to be ‘bad,’ without even once trying to see if there were some cause for it: a reason for him to act in such uncharacteristic ways. 

But she never did. 

Aizalea got upset with him for nipping or scratching and would tell him so, but had yet to lock him away and ignore him. Which, was part of why he slowly began to feel that it might be okay to allow himself to be closer to her.  _ A little bit?  _ It was something that he kept going back and forth on, especially with his nerves on edge lately. He’d been thinking about what all had happened the last time that he’d been on Earth - what had been the reason he’d been sent there; the torture preceding and the one responsible… It was the cause of his more frequent nightmares - and; subsequently, the reluctant relenting of his stance on staying up on Izzy’s bed. It was not so bad, he decided. She always allowed him to curl up on one of her pillows, as close to or as far away from her as he chose; if she thought that he may be cold, Izzy would reach for a blanket and put it over him. He usually really wasn’t that cold, but the thought was nice. 

Aside from slowly becoming more agreeable in nature, he found himself slowly giving in to the new - if a bit odd - instincts and urges that he had, as a cat. One of which, being to  _ actually  _ play with the toys that had been gotten for him. To his surprise, there were some of them that he quite enjoyed; ones meant to be mentally stimulating, or the ones with the stuff in it that was apparently known as “catnip.”  _ Whatever the stuff was, it was amazing! _ ...Though also a bit embarrassing later on, when the effect had worn off. 

When not in the kitty condo, carting around a toy, or getting healed up by Izzy, he had taken to exploring more of the apartment. There was a lot to it, and everything from this angle looked a lot bigger than it would of, had he been a person at the time. He was sure of that. 

There were plenty of places where he could lay in the sun - as he’d discovered was quite delightful - rooms to peek inside of and investigate and things nearly  _ everywhere  _ to climb on. Which, he’d learned, seemed to be another one of those odd ‘instincts’ that he’d found he now had: to climb up on everything and anything that he could get up to, whether he  _ technically should _ , or not. 

In the end, none of this compared to when Izzy would sit and read to him. Whether on a pillow beside her or in her lap so he could see the pictures too, it was calming. Her reading voice was clear and concise; he nearly felt sometimes like he was inside the stories that she was telling, it was truly amazing. In all his years, very few had such a gift for reading this way. Couple this with her habit of running her fingers through his fur or scratching the top of his head as she read to him, and it made for quite an experience. It was quickly becoming yet another thing that he thought to be delightful; yet, he also found that it made him feel bad. 

She had given so much, and yet he’d  _ still  _ not given her so much as a name of which she could call him by… 

✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋  🐾  ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧

_ “Ugh..”  _ Izzy sighed, running her hands through her dark hair. She was hoping to get this song done before they had to start booking performances again. It was supposed to be the leading song for the album that they were trying to put together, but it just wasn’t coming out right at all. Digging her nails into her scalp and shutting her eyes, Izzy gripped her hair so tightly that it was starting to hurt her head. Ash and Luna had gone to hang out with their brother, so she was the only one here except for the kitty - that she still didn’t have anything to call by. 

Getting her breath hard, she let go of her hair and sort of limply fell forward. She’d been at this for a good couple of hours now, and it was driving her crazy. Nothing that she put down sounded right, or like it fit together, and she was so frustrated with it. It was not only supposed to be the first song on the list of their new album, but their manager/agent had stated that he wanted her to write it  **all ** on her own. Ash and Luna  _ weren’t  _ allowed to help her, he’d made that pretty clear. And the stress of it was getting to her..again. This was why she almost didn’t notice the feeling of her hair being pawed at, from the end of the couch. 

_ “You’re crying.”  _ Blue-green eyes stared up at her from where he sat on the floor, a matter-of-fact tone in how he’d spoken to her. As  _ “matter-of-fact” _ as one who was currently a  **cat ** could be, anyways. 

Sitting up a bit and wiping her eyes with the palms of her hand, she sniffed. “How  _ observant  _ of you,” she sighed, her brows creasing together. She had a lopsided smile on her face, but it wasn’t fooling him. He knew she was upset. He could feel it, somehow; or..almost  _ smell it, _ maybe? Whatever it was, he knew that she wasn’t having a great time right now. That much was evident. Even despite that she’d tried to repeat back to him what he’d said to her the first time that he’d spoken to her.  _ It was in part.. _ ** _especially_ ** _ because of that, really. _

_ “You aren’t funny, Aizalea. I can see that you’re upset, I’m color-impaired right now. Not  _ ** _stupid_ ** _ .”  _ He stated, giving her what she could only think was his attempt at a ‘knowing’ look. To which, she rolled her eyes. 

“No. But you  _ are  _ a smart-aleck,” Izzy answered him, offering a smirk and trying to boop his nose with her finger. It earned her the funniest of looks, and a moment of silence, that she couldn’t help but to laugh at even though she’d been so frustrated with her song not coming out how she wanted it to. 

_ “Hmph.” _ Giving her an indignant look and swatting at her when she tried to do it again, he sat up straighter. _ “Be that as it may, you are avoiding my question. So, tell me. What is it?”  _ He pressed her, gaining a frown in response. She didn’t seem to want to let him see it, whatever it was. 

“..I’m trying to write a song. It’s for the new album that we’re supposed to be putting together..it’s the first one, I saved it for last because our manager wanted me to do it by myself. And I’ve been stuck on it, I can’t think of what to write. I have half a song, and can’t think of anything else. Nothing that I’ve tried makes sense!” Aizalea sighed, hiding her face in her hands. A short amount of time passed by before she finally looked up again; when she didn’t see him anymore, she was going to ask where he had gone off to - when she then felt paws walking up her back. 

_ “Let me see,” _ he meowed at her, nudging her cheek and peeking over her shoulder. 

“Hey, what’re you-” Izzy looked over at him and exhaled slowly. “Alright, but you won’t be able to understand it…” she muttered, adding “Persistent thing.” Moving the page over, she finally let him see it. It looked like a mix of musical symbols, and then a bunch of..weird squiggles..to him.  _ Again _ . To hide his frustration with this, he stared at it awhile longer before answering her. 

_ “Well, what do you  _ ** _expect _ ** _ from one named Loki?”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The link to the original imagine is here: https://imagine-loki.tumblr.com/post/184348405059/imagine-that-loki-is-banished-to-midgard-shortly
> 
> The link to where I usually upload my stories on Tumblr, (but need to update again, since I haven't for a while ) is here: https://a-pandoras-box-of-stories.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> The link to the original imagine is here: https://imagine-loki.tumblr.com/post/184348405059/imagine-that-loki-is-banished-to-midgard-shortly 
> 
> The link to where I usually upload my stories on Tumblr, (but need to update again, since I haven't for a while ) is here: https://a-pandoras-box-of-stories.tumblr.com/


End file.
